Tag Archives: care protocol

I posted the information below elsewhere on the internet in response to a request for advice regarding care protocol for women who experience miscarriage or stillbirth. I am amazed at how upset I got just writing these seven points. Women who miscarry or otherwise lose their babies are treated so strangely. I’ve been reading a terrific book called Motherhood Lost which looks at birth loss from a feminist perspective. It really speaks to me, so click on the link and check it out.

1. Take women having active bleeding IMMEDIATELY to a room. Don’t make them sit bawling their eyes out around other pregnant women or in a horrible ER waiting room.2. Don’t subject them to unnecessary protocols when they make a request – I was “forced” to accept a heplock, and not only was it completely unnecessary, but the nurse sucked at getting it into place.

3. Don’t tell a woman (especially when you’re not her provider) that she put the pregnancies too close together and that she pushes herself too much. We already blame ourselves enough.

4. Don’t misread ultrasounds. Misread ultrasound leads to misdiagnosis which further complicates care and treatment. Because of this misdiagnosis, I was treated like a woman who wasn’t miscarrying “correctly” instead of a woman experiencing “threatened miscarriage” due to a subchorionic hematoma. 5w4d may be too early to see a fetal pole, and the presence of a yolk sac implies the existence of a fetal pole. I did NOT have a blighted ovum.

5. If your patient miscarries over the weekend . . . follow-up with her. It’s the least you could do.6. Make the billing process more clear and more simple to digest. I don’t know where all of my bills come from and why I continue to have to pay so much out of pocket. I thought I had insurance???

7. Make sure you have RESOURCES to share with your patients/clients in the form of personal support, support groups/networks, reading materials, etc.

Yeah . . . all of this (and more, I’m sure) I experienced with my 10/07 miscarriage. That was my one and only experience with our local hospital. I won’t be going back there unless I’m seriously dying.